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EU Reaches Out to UK Opposition, May’s Job Uncertain

The European Union has been meeting more frequently with the UK’s opposition Labour Party as doubts grow over whether Prime Minister Theresa May will remain in her post through the conclusion of Brexit negotiations, the Daily Telegraph reported without saying where it got the information.

As May brushed off calls from some Conservative Party members this week to resign, a move by EU negotiators to step up communication with Jeremy Corbyn’s party shows fallout from government infighting has reached Brussels. Brexit talks resume in the Belgian capital on Monday with officials saying agreements on some fundamental issues, in particular Britain’s financial settlement, are still some way off, Bloomberg reported.

According to Saturday’s Telegraph, EU negotiators are seeking assurances from Corbyn that he will honor agreements already made during Brexit talks if he were to become prime minister before a deal is signed. The newspaper cited EU officials whom it didn’t name.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, met Corbyn and Labour Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer in July. Shortly after that, Labour announced that it was in favor of a post-Brexit transitional period of between two and four years, during which the UK would remain in the EU’s single market and customs union. In her key speech on Brexit in Florence last month, May said she backed such an arrangement for about two years.

In London, senior officials in May’s Conservative party, speaking on condition of anonymity, have urged the prime minister to assert her authority by shaking up her cabinet and firing Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. He has angered colleagues by forging his own path on Brexit in the run up to what proved a disastrous party conference, according to three senior Tories.